Are you still trying to figure out how to safely celebrate Fourth of July? The coronavirus pandemic and other has definitely put a damper on everyone’s Independence Day plans. That doesn’t mean you just let the day go by without doing anything, though.
There are still fun things you can do to celebrate this momentous tradition without jeopardizing your health and safety. You just need to be creative. We’ve come up with a few suggestions below. Check them out and see how you can still safely celebrate Fourth of July in spite of the coronavirus pandemic.
The safest way to celebrate Fourth of July is to party at home with your family. This should be your first and only option. The only things you have to think about is how you can make the festivities fun for the whole family.
Show Your Pride
The coronavirus pandemic is no excuse not to show how much you love your country. Fill your home with red, white and blue.
Start with something as simple as displaying the American flag. Place it somewhere that can easily be seen but make sure it’s easy to remove in case it rains. Garlands like the TecUnite 8 Strands Patriotic Star Streamers look nice hanging from the balcony, along the walls of your home, or even from a tree.
Add a little more flash with a bunch of patriotic paper fans from Ivenf. The set includes 12 red, blue and white paper fans in 6 different sizes and designs. They’d look good inside your home though you can use it outdoors if you wish. Just take them inside when you’re done for the day so you can pack and use them for late occasions.
For the table, use something like the Patriotic Table Cover from Beistle. The plastic table cover measures 54 x 108 inches. Go all the way and use disposable plates and eating utensils in red, white and blue. The ChefCity Disposable Patriotic Dinnerware Set includes 24 sets of biodegradable paper plates and paper cups to go with food grade and BPA-free plastic spoons, forks, and knives. Each set also gets napkins.
Watch A Virtual Fourth of July Party
The best parts of most Fourth of July celebrations are the parade and fireworks display. Unfortunately, mass gatherings are not allowed right now. Your next option is to watch from afar, particularly from your TV or laptop screen.
US President Donald Trump will be holding his second “Salute to America,” a Fourth of July celebration he started last year. The pre-taped program, to be aired on PBS at 8 pm on July 4, will feature Trump giving a speech from Mount Rushmore. The celebration will then shift to the South Lawn and the Ellipse. It will feature military demonstrations, music performances, and fireworks display.
Watch out for the Blue Angels and Thunderbirds do military flyovers. Trump announced that the top-flight demonstration squadrons will be strutting their stuff over a number of cities, particularly Baltimore, Boston, New York City, and Philadelphia. If you reside in one of these cities, that’s one thing to be excited about.
Aside from Washington DC’s Capitol Hill Community 4th of July Parade, other virtual Fourth of July parties you can check out include the Shell Freedom Over Texas in Houston, Los Angeles’ Grand Park 4th of July Block Party Home Edition, and Let Freedom Sing in Nashville.
Prepare A Fourth of July Feast
A simple backyard barbecue should be one way for the family to safely celebrate Fourth of July. Check out Snake River Farms. They have a collection of premium meats for your barbecuing needs such as American Wagyu beef, Northwest beef, and Kurobuta pork. For this year’s Fourth of July barbecue, you better have hot dogs that both kids and adults can enjoy.
Snake River Farms’ 100% natural American Wagyu Hot Dogs come in 5-pound packages containing 25 hot dogs. That’s more than enough for a day of fun in your back yard. Cook the hot dogs on a traditional grill or use a solar oven if you prefer less smoke.
Related: Quick and Easy Homestead Recipes for the Ultimate Fourth of July Feast
Since summer’s here, take full advantage of the sun and have a cookout in your yard using a solar oven. The GoSun Fusion Hybrid Solar Oven can cook meals for 4 to 6 people. The heftier brother of the Sport and Go Solar Cookers can carry up to 145 ounces of food.
It takes just 15 minutes for pre-cooked meals to be done. For meats and liquids, you’ll need at least 55 minutes. Hot dogs should be ready in at least 15 minutes. Start with them so the kids can eat early. Afterwards, move on to the other dishes you have prepared for your Fourth of July feast. The good thing is that you can do lots of other things while waiting for your food to cook.
Enjoy A Few Drinks
Independence Day parties are notorious for the not-so-safe combination of alcohol and fireworks. In fact, statistics show that Fourth of July is one of the deadliest holidays. According to the Fatality Analysis Reporting System, there were 278 car crash fatalities from 2010 to 2014 happened on July 4. It is the second deadliest day during that time span. January 1 leads the way with 364 car crash deaths. Those figures are just the result of binging on alcohol.
In 2018, around 5,600 injuries related to fireworks were reported from June 22 to July 22. That’s way more than half of the 9,100 cases recorded for the whole year, according to the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC). Four people died during the week surrounding the Fourth of July.
Since you’ll be spending Fourth of July at home, you can enjoy a few drinks but do so responsibly. The fact that there won’t be any driving involved doesn’t give you the license to get drunk. A couple of bottles of beer or a bottle of wine shared with the other adults should be enough of a celebration.
Get yourself a GoSun Chill Solar Cooler so you can keep your drinks cold while you’re out on your yard. It’s also a good thing to have to when you finally get to go out on camping trips and long drives. The Chill doesn’t need ice to keep food and drinks cold. It makes its own ice using the power of the sun.
Build Your Backyard Cinema
Take advantage of your outdoor space and set up a backyard cinema. This way, you don’t have to spend on tickets and risk your lives just to catch a movie in theaters. You have to shell out some moolah for your personal outdoor cinema. But once you’ve completed your backyard cinema set, you can always enjoy a movie anytime you want. Except when it rains, of course.
To make your DIY backyard cinema, you’ll need a projector and a portable screen or a white sheet. The CINEMOOD 360 Interactive Portable Projector is unique for being a 360-degree virtual reality projector. This means it allows interactive videos that the children will love. Aside from that, you can also watch movies and other contents via the 32GB storage. It also allows iOS screen mirroring but not laptop mirroring, however.
Another good thing about CineMood is that it can stream shows from Netlfix, Amazon Prime Video, YouTube 360, and Disney+. With Disney+ in tow, you can finally watch the hit musical Hamilton right in your own home. More on Hamilton below.
Watch movies or documentaries related to Independence Day. Tom Cruise’s Born On the Fourth of July is always a good watch. If there are younger audiences, Independence Day starting Will Smith and Jeff Goldblum is a good choice.
Watch Patriotic Movies on Streaming Services
If a backyard cinema is out of the question, enjoy a movie indoors instead. Tune in to Disney+ on July 3 and watch the premiere of Hamilton, the hit musical by Lin Manuel Miranda about Founding Father Alexander Hamilton. If you love musicals, you have to see 1776 on Amazon. The hit Broadway musical from 1972 is also about the Founding Fathers.
Over at Netflix, there is a slew of new films and shows that will be available this July. The Baby-Sitters Club, debuting on the 3rd, is a fun watch for the whole family, especially if you have a daughter. While it has little to do with Independence Day, it does show little ladies taking on responsibilities and trying to be independent. I’m sure your kids will learn something from this feel-good film.
The AMC series Turn is about a group of spies that helped defeat the British forces during the Revolutionary War. It’s also streaming on Netflix.
Daniel Day Lewis’ brilliant turn as Abraham Lincoln in the 2012 film Lincoln is also streaming on Netflix right now. Matthew Broderick, Denzel Washington, and Morgan Freeman starred in Glory, perhaps one of the best made about the Civil War. It’s available on Showtime.
John Adams (2008) is available on Amazon Video and HBO Go/Now. Bryan Cranston’s All the Way about former US President Lyndon B. Johnson is on HBO. We’re pretty sure you can find something on your streaming service that’s about American nationalism and patriotism.
Any movie experience is a lot better with a bag of popcorn, right? Since the goal is to safely celebrate Fourth of July and going to the moviehouse is out of the question, the next best thing is to use a patriotic popcorn bag or at least something with the colors of the American flag.
A better option is to use a silicone popcorn maker. The original Salbree Microwave Popcorn Popper comes in red, white and blue the colors so you can beam with American pride while munching on your snacks. Simply place the BPA-free collapsible bowl into the microwave oven and enjoy your popcorn after a few minutes.
Watch Declaration of Independence Readings
It’s not unusual to see people, some in costumes, reading the Declaration of Independence out loud. It’s actually nice to stop and listen intently as you are reminded of what this important document contains. The readings will continue in many parts of the country albeit online. Find out if there’s one in your area you can watch online or tune in to any other websites.
Take Online Tours of Museum and Historical Landmarks
Don’t let the pandemic keep you from visiting national landmarks, museums, and other places that will help remind you of your love for the country. Though you can’t be physically there, you can still take a virtual tour of these places. Check out Architect of the Capitol, The Struggle for African American Freedom, and other similar virtual exhibits.
Backyard Camping
Independence Day is also an opportunity to spend some quality time with the kids. If you’ve been pretty busy since the pandemic, take this holiday as a chance to catch up with them.
Don’t forget to keep things fun. It’s great that the children can get to know more about history but documentaries and virtual tours may not be their cup of tea. Backyard camping, however, is a different story.
Related: Camping With Kids: How To Introduce Young Children To The Great Outdoors
Pitch a tent so the kids can pretend to be out in the woods camping while everyone is busy preparing the food and other stuff. The Coleman Instant Cabin Tent fits four persons, which should be spacious enough for the kids to play around. The easy-to-set-up tent uses its dark room technology to block 90% of the sun. The kids will stay comfy inside the tent even under the sun. If it rains all of a sudden, its weather proof features will keep them dry until you can get the umbrella to take them inside the house. Or just let them have fun in the rain without worrying of they’re stuff inside the tent getting wet.
Enjoy Some Alone Time
This may be difficult considering you’ve been stuck at home for quite some time. But you’re not required to have some fancy celebration to commemorate July 4th or any other holiday for that matter. Just because you chose to spend some quiet time doesn’t mean you’re not being patriotic, right?
There are tons of things you can do to celebrate Fourth of July alone and without much fanfare. One is to find a cozy spot and grab a book. Better if that book has something to so with American history so you’re still celebrating the holiday in a way. Another is to watch a movie or documentary also about the nation.
Make it a part of your solo celebration to bake some cookies or make a nice meal you can enjoy while reading or watching. Fix a drink while you’re at it.
If you’re into homemade brews, this is the perfect time to enjoy some of your concoction. It’s not quite the same without the gang but surely they’ll understand that your traditional Fourth of July boozefest will have to wait. If this piqued your interest, you can get your own beer-making kit and start brewing your own beer at home.
As we’ve been telling you all this time, the best way to safely celebrate Fourth of July is to party at home. If you really have to go out for whatever valid reason you have, the least you can do is to take the necessary precautions. Wear a mask, practice social distancing, avoid touching stuff, and bring an alcohol-based hand sanitizer. Follow Gentleman Pirate Club for more tips on how to survive this on-going pandemic.
